Name: Wildfire in Arizona, June 17 to 30, 2003
Start: 2003-06-17T15:00
End: 2003-06-30T23:59
Location: Arizona

Where it happened

Every event with a place to put it; 1 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. Tap one for its entry below.

Tornadoes
Tropical storms and surge
Floods
Wind
Hail
Winter weather
Heat and drought
Cold
Fire, smoke and dust
Marine and coastal
Other

Open the live radar over this ground

The toll

Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: $66 million
Crop damage: None recorded
Events: 1

Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.

What happened

The episode as NWS TWC wrote it up.

The Aspen wildfire started on June 17th in the Catalina Mountains by an unknown hiker on the Marshall Gulch and Aspen Loop trail. The Fire was first observed on the south face portion of Marshall Peak around 7000 feet. On June 19th, winds increased across Southeast Arizona with the highest winds recorded at Hopkins RAWS site (south of Catalina Mountains). Sustained winds of 23 knots (26 mph) and gusts up to 42 knots (48 mph) were recorded at this site for one hour during the afternoon. The combination of strong winds and low relative humidity pushed the fire northeast into the town of Summerhaven on top of Mt. Lemmon. Numerous structures were destroyed including the Alpine Lodge, Pima county transportation facility, Post Office, and many others. In all the fire consumed a total of 84,750 acres and 333 structures lost. Damage estimates indicated total poperty damage was $66 million, supression costs were $16 milliion, and loss of trees and resources were $33 million.

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Tucson, AZ wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Jun 17, 3:00 PM MST, 0 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Jun 17, 3:00 PM MST, 0 minutes before

SOUTHEAST ARIZONA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TUCSON AZ
300 PM MST TUE JUN 17 2003

.SYNOPSIS...SCATTERED SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS WILL PREVAIL ACROSS
AREAS EAST OF TUCSON TONIGHT. LITTLE CHANGE IN THE WEATHER PATTERN
IS EXPECTED WEDNESDAY. A WEAK TROUGH OF LOW PRESSURE WILL MOVE
ACROSS CALIFORNIA TOWARD ARIZONA THURSDAY. THIS SYSTEM WILL BRING
DRY WEATHER TO THE AREA FRIDAY WITH DRY WEATHER CONTINUING INTO
EARLY NEXT WEEK.

.DISCUSSION...KEMX WSR-88D DETECTED ISOLATED TO SCATTERED MOSTLY
LESS THAN 40 DBZ ECHOES MAINLY E OF A DUDLEYVILLE-VAIL-NOGALES LINE
AT 2130Z. OTHER MOSTLY LESS THAN 30 DBZ ECHOES WERE ALSO DETECTED
NEAR GREEN VALLEY AND JUST S TUCSON. ACTIVITY WAS MOVING E AROUND 10
KTS. VISIBLE SATELLITE IMAGERY DEPICTED THE N-S DEMARCATION LINE OF
VERY DRY AIR ACROSS THE WRN HALF OF THE FORECAST AREA FROM MOIST AIR
OVER ERN SECTIONS. WATER VAPOR SATELLITE IMAGERY ALSO DEPICTED
NICELY A VORT MAX MOVING E ACROSS CENTRAL AZ AND A VORT LOBE MOVING
EWD ACROSS FAR SRN AZ. THE VORT MAX APPEARED TO ASSIST WITH THE
INITIATION OF CONVECTION EARLIER VICINITY WHITE MOUNTAINS NWD WHILE
THE VORT LOBE APPEARED TO AID THE DEVELOPMENT OF SHOWERS/THUNDERSTORMS
OVER ERN PIMA/SANTA CRUZ/COCHISE COUNTIES. HAVE OPTED FOR SCATTERED
MAINLY EVENING SHOWERS/THUNDERSTORMS ACROSS ERN SECTIONS WITH
ISOLATED EVENING SHOWERS/THUNDERSTORMS TUS VICINITY/SWD. GFS
SOLUTION DEPICTS SOME PRECIPITATION TO LINGER MAINLY WHITE MOUNTAINS
TONIGHT AND THIS SCENARIO ACCEPTED GIVEN THE APPROACH OF THE
AFOREMENTIONED VORT MAX. ONLY SUBTLE PATTERN CHANGES PROGGED WED.
THUS BELIEVE AFTERNOON/EVENING SHOWERS/THUNDERSTORMS ACROSS ERN
SECTIONS SEEMS REASONABLE. WEAK SHORTWAVE TROUGH PROGGED ACROSS SRN
CA TOWARD WRN AZ THUR. FLOW ALOFT TO BECOME INCREASINGLY SWLY THUS
ANY CHANCE OF MEASURABLE PRECIPITATION SHOULD BE CONFINED TO WHITE
MOUNTAINS THUR AFTERNOON/EARLY EVENING. DRY WEATHER TO RETURN
AREAWIDE FRI AND CONTINUE INTO EARLY NEXT WEEK AS A BROAD TROUGH
DEVELOPS OVER THE NRN ROCKIES. PER COORD WITH WFO PHX HAVE OPTED TO
TREND DAYTIME MAX TEMPS GRADUALLY DOWNWARD WED-SAT WITH MAX TEMPS
STATUS QUO SUN-MON. HIGH PRESSURE TO BUILD OVER NRN MEX EARLY NEXT
WEEK SHOULD PROVIDE AN INCREASE IN MAX TEMPS TUE AS DRY WEATHER
PREVAILS.  BF

.TWC...NONE.

Hazardous weather outlook, Jun 17, 6:30 AM MST, 8 hours 30 minutes before

AZZ019-029>035-181400-

HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TUCSON AZ
630 AM MST TUE JUN 17 2003

THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR SOUTHEAST ARIZONA

.DAY ONE...TODAY

NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME.

.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...WEDNESDAY THROUGH MONDAY

NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME.

.SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT...

WEATHER SPOTTERS ARE ENCOURAGED TO REPORT SIGNIFICANT WEATHER
CONDITIONS ACCORDING TO STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURES.

The radar

The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

1 wildfire. Local standard time, as filed.

Wildfire, Pima

When: June 17, 3:00 PM MST to June 30, 11:59 PM MST
Where: Pima County, Summerhaven
Property damage: $66 million
Reported by: PARK/FOREST SERVICE
Coordinates: 32.097, -111.790 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

What these are

Wildfire: A fire burning in wildland vegetation, with its acreage and damage where known.

After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.

The same day elsewhere

More

Every storm in Arizona in 2003 Every state in 2003 This day in weather history Warnings in Arizona, June 2003

Sources

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5378332.